MFF 2012 diary: DAY 4

A look at the events in the fourth day of the Mumbai Film Festival.

A look at the events in the fourth day of the Mumbai Film Festival.

1 MASTERCHEFS AT MAMI
MasterChef Australia’s celebrity judges made an appearance at the festival to the delegates’ surprise. George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan didn’t speak to the media, they said they were there only to enjoy the films. When they stood up to wave at the delegates in the theatre, the audience burst into a massive round of applause.

2 TWO MINUTES’ SILENCE FOR YASH CHOPRA
At around 7 pm, news of Yash Chopra’s demise began flashing across news channels and spread like wildfire. Before the 8.15 pm show at Inox, the audience maintained a two-minute silence in respect. After Jaya Bachchan’s acting master class was cancelled, the open forum discussions on premium ticket prices at theatres on weekends was also called off as the personalities were all heading to the hospital for condolence visits.

3 ADVANCE BOOKING AT INOX
Delegates at Inox were booking more than one ticket per pass. Then, minutes before the screenings, those who couldn’t make it for the screening were either scrambling to get rid of the tickets or wasting bookings. Shows that were ‘houseful’ at the box-office were actually running relatively empty.

Initially, delegates could only get tickets to the films an hour in advance. On Monday, after many complaints, the organisers tweaked — or as the Tweet reads, ‘improvised’ — the system.